Making Sunshine, Ronald Kok, 2018, Acrylic on canvas
28 years seems like a long time to be with one person. But 28 years also goes by in a beat of the heart.
It is my 28th Anniversary today. On May 26, 1990 we were two young people who didn’t have a clue what was ahead, as is the case with every other couple walking to that altar and saying their “I Do’s”. Those years have sped by but they are also jammed packed with memories, many good ones, some painful ones, others that need some reflection to draw back into the mind. At present, Monique and I are in a season that can seem dark on certain days. Yet it is amazing how often light continues to peek through.
Monique is an avid gardener and fills our house all year ’round with plants and flowers. So much of who she is in my mind is green and growing, colorful and alive. So it was fitting that I give her the above painting as an anniversary gift. It is a tulip as seen from above. Those of you who know flowers know that tulips do this in the late stages of their blooming. In the traditional view of the tulip, not the best time for a photo opp. But seen from above, like the angle of this painting, there is an entirely fresh and new perspective on the beauty of this flower.
There was something so apropos about that image as related to our marriage after 28 years. It inspired a small poem that I wrote on the back of the above canvas. I share it with you here with the hope that you’ll see some beauty in your own life from a new perspective; perhaps that will help create sunshine to dispel your particular night as well.
Making Sunshine out of Night
Over time we’ve opened up
More and more to the light
As one we are displaying
A myriad of colors bright
The years extract their toll
Day-to-Day can take all our might
But you and I we’re a fire
Making sunshine out of night
– Ronald Kok, May 25, 2018
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